1. Field of the invention
This invention relates, generally, to accessories attachable to golf club bags. More particularly, it relates to a flat, foldable member formed of sheet material having a water repellant first surface and a second surface that includes a towel.
2. Description of the prior art
Golf club bags are of course open ended and thus the open end must be closed when precipitation occurs if the clubs and the inside of the bag are to be protected. Bag manufacturers provide a hood for such use, but most golfers simply stuff that hood into the bag when the weather is fair; thus, the hood is difficult to retrieve when needed.
Golf club bags do not come equipped with towels, however. On any golf course at any time, nearly every golf bag on the course will have a towel attached thereto by some means rigged up by the golfer because towels are very handy on a golf course, especially if the course is wet.
Accordingly, inventors have developed accessory items in the form of combination hoods and towels. For example, a reversible hood is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,579 to Brick. A first side of the hood is formed of a water repellant material and a second side thereof is formed of a towel-like material. The device, when not in use as a hood, is releasably attachable to the golf club bag in its reversed configuration, i.e., with its towel side out. When in use as a hood, the water-repellant side is out and the towel side becomes inaccessible. Thus, the Brick device is usable as a hood or as a towel, but it cannot be used as a towel when it is being used as a hood, i.e., the conversion into a hood deletes the towel function. Since a towel is most needed during light drizzles, the loss of the towel function during such times represents a significant limitation.
The earlier devices also lack storage means for personal items that the golfer may not want to carry in his or her pockets.
An earlier invention by the present inventor, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,897, overcomes many of the limitations of the earlier designs. However, the towel side is somewhat difficult to use because the golfer must rub his or her hands against the single exposed surface thereof, and the device includes no storage means for personal items.
Thus, there is a need for a combination hood and towel that retains its towel function when in its hood configuration, and there is a need for a construction that enables the towel to be used in a substantially unrestricted way. Moreover, there is a need for a structure that provides a storage means for the convenience of the golfer.
The prior art, considered as a whole, neither teaches nor suggests to those of ordinary skill in this art how such a desirable combination device could be provided, as evidenced by the collective failure of earlier workers in this field to produce the novel construction disclosed hereinafter.